Weekly Rundown: Was Extreme Rules Better than ‘Mania?

This blog reflects my subjective views and nothing more. If you disagree – which is encouraged – feel free to voice your opinion (in a civil manner) in the comments section. Also, I am always open to constructive criticism of the writing format, phrasing, etc.

Hello and welcome back to yet another edition of the Weekly Rundown hosted by yours truly, Guy Landau. This is a weekly feature on WrestlingNewsWorld.com where I gloss over the important happenings in the WWE week as it pertains to the 2 major shows, in the form of bulletins for the positive happenings (under the “YES!” column, and prefaced with + signs), the negative happenings (under the “NO!” column, and prefaced with – signs), and the ones I could not decide what they were, but felt they were important enough to comment on (Under the “Maybe?” column, and prefaced with ? signs).

So without further ado, let’s get started.

YES!

Extreme Rules

+ Ryder’s involvement in Kane vs. Orton was a nice touch… I just wish his punches would’ve had more of an impact, and that the announcers wouldn’t have made him out to look so weak. Also, the match itself was GREAT! I usually don’t enjoy falls count anywhere matches, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

+ I may be wrong, but I think the crowd chanted for Ziggler in his match with Clay. I know I did, but mostly – WWE should take note.

+ The YES! chants throughout the night did not hinder my viewing experience, I must say. Ziggler got some, Rhodes got some,Bryan got some… Well, it wasChicago, after all.

+ I would just like to make note ofRhodes’ disaster kick off the table. That spot was AMAZING. AND Cody won! I did not expect that, but this match was executed brilliantly.

+ How fitting that Sheamus used a Cloverleaf. I would not mind seeing that enter his repertoire, seeing as he locked it in so beautifully.

+ Ladies and Gents, Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus is an example to how a match should be ideally wrestled. And boy, did they get time. This was, I guess, an “I’m sorry” about ‘Mania from WWE.

+ I would just like to highlight a fan in attendance who had two signs that deserve recognition. The first was “OH MAH GOODNESS”, and the second was “#PushMcIntyre”

+ LAYLA! I did not expect that. Welcome back, she is a very capable wrestler (as evident by her absolute fluidness in carrying that match). Layla was absolutely on mark with every single spot, and I for one am really excited to have her back.

+ Lesnar vs. Cena was a VERY different approach to a match. I have never seen such a match before, and it told a really huge story above all else. And Lesnar is absolutely sick standing up and laughing after that HORRENDOUS bump he took to the outside. Cena took a LOT of punishment, moreso than I’ve ever seen him take in a single match, and it made Lesnar look unstoppable. Cena lucked out a victory with a vicious spot, but this match was believable with all things considered. It was a lot different from a regular match, but not necessarily in a bad way. Needless to say PG was thrown out the window with this one, as the announcers were all-in, language-wise as well. The trainers coming in was part of the larger story the match told, and it worked. Kudos to the road agent who worked this match out with them, as the message they tried to send off went through with flying colors. Now I just have to realize what exactly it was.

+ Overall Extreme Rules was a REALLY good PPV, much more than what I expected it to be.

RAW

+ Well, that segment was a very interesting way to open RAW. I’m really interested in seeing where it’s going to go.

+ Miz HAD to beat Santino, and the right call was indeed made. 4:18 is a very short starting time, though. It guarantees short matches throughout the night.

+ What a way to kick off Smackdown with Bryanvs. Sheamus! Of course it couldn’t have ended cleanly with both men main eventing the coming PPV (more on that in the NO!), though I wish it would’ve went on a little longer. In other news – It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Ricardo Rodriguez executing a beautiful Cross Body.

+ I would not oppose Hunico and Camacho being a tag team in a lacking division.

+ Sandow is so awesome… “The self-professed Intellectual savior of the masses”. Brilliant! Now, with him not having a match (you know, for our intellectual merit’s sake) and RyBack replacing him, this whole segment was brilliantly booked! Not to mention it seems like RyBack is finally passed squashing skinny guys as other wrestlers look on from the backstage monitors. Not to mention that the squashes on this Smackdown were kept to a minimum, all things considered. They should find a different balance each week to feature every new wrestler. I won’t oppose tag squashes between Cesaro and Sandow, for example, where each destroys a different opponent in the same match.

+ Nattie vs. Layla was awesome, both of them are better than many of the male wrestlers in WWE, but are unfortunately stuck in an interestless division. At least it wasn’t a squash like the entrances suggested it was going to be. Another positive is that it appears as though the flatulence gimmick is long behind us.

NO!

Extreme Rules

- Ziggler should not be losing to Brodus Clay, who by all accounts is working in the midcard-upper midcard. Ziggler should be a main eventer, and a successful one at that.

- This might sound stupid, but it’s the little things that irk me. Why didn’t the guys setting up the tables have nametags? Weren’t all employees supposed to wear them?

- Wow, what a fall in the jobber department. From Friday’s awesome one to “dumb & dumber”. Notice how the guy miming and mathing (oh God, whoever thought that was a good idea?!) expected to be cut off, and wasn’t. Now, I work in a REALLY small promotion and even I know you don’t wait to be cut off. You talk until they cut you off, but you can’t rely on them cutting you off mid-word or mid-sentence. You talk until they do. For any worker not to know that is embarrassing. RyBack was as amazing as ever, though.

- Santino beating Miz is wrong on at least 5 different levels as far as I am concerned.

RAW

- Well, the ending of Show/Jericho was botched, but I’m glad they changed the purposed finish to fit the actual result.

- Wait… So Brodus is back to squashing?! So now we have Cesaro, Tensai, Sandow, RyBack, Young Seals (O’Neil & Young) AND Brodus squashing weekly? Isn’t that a bit excessive?

- So… The tag titles shot goes to the only team who DIDN’T beat The Colonz in recent weeks? Makes sense. Obviously, it was done to give a certain (maybe new, maybe on Smackdown) heel team a shot at the titles. It still should’ve been done on PPV, considering how long the Colonz have held those titles.

- Why is Lawler Bryan’s opponent? When I heard the music at first I thought it was Regal, and boy what a disappointment it was.

- Laurinaitis? THAT is Cena’s next opponent? REALLY?! Huh…

Smackdown

- Sheamus is an Irishman who loves to fight… Where have I seen that before? I think it was in the same place where I’ve seen his flipping Senton and short-lived “white noise” finisher.

- The spot with Truth’s opponent attacking Little (or is it “lil”?) Jimmy was funny when Primo did it on RAW, but don’t rehash it the following match, please.

- So A.W. is no longer Abraham Washington even, but those are the initials of his “All World” agency? I don’t understand why they refuse to acknowledge his WWE background.

- The “snap” in Triple H’s arm from the recap had to be the fakest sounding snap I’ve ever heard.

? Around midway through the Extreme Rules PPV, and lasting the whole of the week, Michael Cole has… stopped being a heel. For no apparent reason. He even went so far as to compliment Booker on Smackdown for something that was completely not worthy of a compliment (“‘Two feet to the mush’… I like that.”). He went full-fledged heel a bit later on in the show, but overall he was a lot more balanced.
? There appears to be a theme of arm-breakage this week. I’m counting 3 injured arms in Sheamus, Cena and Triple H.

I want to address the Cena-Lesnar match further – From everything I’ve been able to gather, this match turned many Cena haters to Cena fans for some reason. Not only did Cena receive – for the first time in YEARS – a unanimous pop following the match, (and in Chicago, no less), but so many readers and commenters here on the site felt the need to come in and say that they have become Cena fans following the match. Now, I’ve turned all the way back when Cena feuded with Nexus, so I do not know what in this match made such an impact on everyone, and I would really like it if someone who’s had that switch on Sunday could write a comment explaining to me what about this match in particular caused them to change their minds about John Cena.

Also, I am considering scrapping the Weekly Rundown and returning to the occasional Landscape blogs about varying subjects (most of you probably don’t know what I am talking about – go to the Blog Spot tab in the main page and click Landau Landscape to see those blogs if you want to familiarize yourself with them). It all depends, I guess, on how much you, the readers, want this feature to stay intact. If you wish for the Rundown to stay, post a quick comment to let me know.

Don’t forget to come back next weekend for a new edition of the Weekly Rundown!

Connect With WNW

Just to be clear – those weren't my signs, I just really liked them. I live in Israel, it's going to be hard for me to ever go to a WWE live show.

Jon Roberston

I think many people thought differently of Cena because they thought Brock Lesnar was literally hurting Cena and working stiff instead of in storyline. Brock was working stiff and people may have thought he intentionally beating up Cena. Cena's screams of pain definitely made it hard to tell whether it was a work, or if he were actually in pain.

ranewber

I love the rundown…don’t you dare scrap it! I start looking for it as soon as I get going on Saturday morning. Should you keep the rundown? YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!

Zach

I would keep doing the weekly rundown. This is the first one I read and it was great!

Richie

I agree. These weekly rundowns give me something to read when I’m dying of boredom at work on saturdays.

ChromeyDaniels

Stay with it

Steve l

I like tje Rundown but would live it if you had time to include TNA as well

Guy Landau

Seeing as the product in TNA is starting to become a bit more bearable, I might just do that.

Maxx Stylez

I love the rundown and starting next week I will be doing my own in the comments here.

Austin

Keep it man.

mchale138

I like the weekly rundown stick with it bro.

Christ 4 Life

I agree, I like this one better.

peckmania

Well, I was one of those who was marking out when Cena fought back and won against Lesnar, and I’ve never been a Cena fan. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted Cena to win. I think it’s for two reasons: 1) brock’s beatdown of Cena looked SO legit to the point that I was sick to my stomach watching someone get beat down so bad and 2) as annoying as Cena’s character is, he is still one of OUR guys. Those of us who watch WWE every time it’s on, Cena is there. Brock’s an outsider. I think I was marking out for WWE over MMA as much as I was Cena over Lesnar.

Dave Barton

I think the reason some Cena haters were able to buy Cena beating Brock (myself included) was because he took a hellacious beating from Brock (as he should) and did a desperate *dirty* deed in cracking him with his chain, in an attempt not to win…but to save his ass & end the beating. Brock came off as the superman in this one, nothing Cena did could stop him until Cena used a foreign object…which seems to me like a definite change in character for Cena, something smarks have been begging for for years.

Howard Stern

Given the type of match though it would've seemed dumb for Cena not to use any foreign objects against Brock. It wasn't really so much of a cheap shot behind the refs back sort of situation, ya heard.

Ryan

My Saturday is not complete without the weekly rundown. Should it stay? YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!

wnwdotcom2

I really enjoy the Weekly Rundown.

Guy Landau

I really enjoy WrestlingNewsWorld.

Howard Stern

I agree, I like this weekly rundown.

Guy Landau

WOW, I really did not expect this much positive feedback. Thanks to everyone who took the time to voice their opinion. Needless to say, the Rundown will stay (and, though not starting next week, and barring TNA's product staying tolerable, will even start including Impact Wrestling & TNA PPVs). I still might do a Landscape once in a blue moon if I have something really urgent to talk about. Once again, thanks to all of you as the response has really been overwhelmingly humbling in the most positive way possible.

Alex

One thing about the tag titles. Were you saying truth and kofi haven’t beaten epico and primo? Just need clarification cause they have several times.

Guy Landau

I don't remember them beating Primo and Epico in a non-title match before getting this shot, I could be wrong though. But even if they have – so have 3 other teams in the past month. Why do they get the titles shot of all people?

Hope that clears it up

Alex

Which teams? Zack Ryder and santino, big show and khali and??? Kofi and truth deserve is because they work hard and make a great team with good charisma, good talent and get good reactions. Not saying you don't agree but just saying that the Uso's won't get the titles anytime soon, neither will hunico and camocho, reks and hawkins, but I could see Titus and young getting them..not that they deserve it yet but thats what it looks might happen.

The Choice

I think that eventually, Cena is going to end up being cheered for by everybody because he going to be "The one that stuck around." I may not be a fan of his ring work, I may not be a fan of his stale character, but one thing that I do consistently praise him for is the fact that he is quite content with staying in the WWE and being "that guy." On that note, I think that instead of comparing Cena to Hogan, a fairer comparison would be to Sting. Sting, who was always loyal to WCW or TNA, even when offered the promise of bigger, better things.

Also, keep the Weekly Rundown. I like seeing how many points we think exactly alike on.

http://www.iheartsnacks.com Joe

Well said

Guzzie1984

The rundown is a quality read on Saturdays, agree TNA would also be good to cover but i fear there will be alot of negatives, keep up the good work Guy

James

No comments about Punk vs Jericho at Extreme Rules???

Guy Landau

I must say I thought it paled in comparison to Bryan/Sheamus. It was a good match, but seeing as I was distracted by Bryan/Sheamus I guess it just slipped my mind to YES! it.

http://wweeverything.con Josh UK

Keep it

Matt Scott

I wouldn't say I'm a converted Cena fan now. Im still bored of the whole "I'm hurt but this is what I love" schtick. I just got my respect for him increased ten fold during that match.

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